HISD Executive Sponsors:Julie Baker, Chief Major Projects OfficerAnn Best, Chief Human Resources Officer
HISD’s Effective Teacher in Every Classroom InitiativeDecember 2010
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The state of public education today: Racial achievement gaps are not narrowing…
Notes: *Accommodations for students with disabilities and English language learners not permitted; Trends similar for Math.Source: Original analysis of the Education Trust based on Long-Term Trends NAEP ; National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP Data Explorer, http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nde, NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress
Average Score on NAEP 4th
Grade Reading Test by Race
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
150 200 250 300 350
Scale Score
White 13 Year-Olds
African American 17 Year-Olds
Hispanic 17 Year-Olds
Percent of Students With Scores on NAEP Reading Test by Age
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…and the gap between the U.S. and other industrialized nations is widening with alarming speed.
Percentage of Students Reaching the TIMSS Advanced International Benchmark in Mathematics, 2007
Source: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
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Here in Texas, schools are failing to prepare far too many students to be successful adults.
10% Students not passing TAKS reading 13%16% Students not passing TAKS math 19%19% Students who fail to graduate in 4 years 30%9% Students who drop out of school 16%
Texas HISD
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The Stakes: By sixth grade, we can begin to reliably predict which students won’t ever graduate high school.
A study that followed more than 12,000 Philadelphia 6th graders found four simple predictive indicators identify those likely to drop out:
1 Failing math
2 Failing English
3 Attending less than 80% of the time
4 Receiving a poor final behavior grade
“Our evidence clearly indicates that, at least in high poverty schools, students who are missing 20% or more school, receiving poor behavior marks or failing math or English in 6th grade do not recover. On the contrary, they drop out.”
Source: Balfanz, Robert; Herzog, Liza; and Douglas J. Mac Iver (2007). Preventing Student Disengagement and Keeping Students on the Graduation Track in High-Poverty Middle-Grades Schools: Early Identification and Effective Interventions. Educational Psychologist, V42.4 (223 – 235).
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higher than that of an adult with more
than a high school education Source: Woolf, Steven H., (2009).
3xmore likely
than a college graduate to be jailed
Source: Sum, Andrew, et al., (2009).
47xmore likely
than a college graduate to be jobless
Source: Sum, Andrew, et al., (2009).
4x
The consequences of dropping out are dire.
“Poverty and crime are connected to a lack of educational achievement… The majority of homicide victims in Cincinnati never graduated from high school.”
O'dell M. Owen, Hamilton County Coroner (Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2010)
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Source: Bridgeland, John M.; DiIulio, Jr., John J.; and Karen Burke Morison (2006). The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts. Civic Enterprises, LLC.
81% wanted better teachers
71% wanted more interesting classes
70%wanted more tutoring, summerschool and extra time with teachers
66%would have worked harder if more was demanded of them (higher standards and more homework)
62% wanted more classroom discipline
The most common reasons students cite for dropping out – and the most powerful antidotes – are related to schools and teachers.
Why High School Students Drop OutReasons Given by 677 Dropouts (2004)
What Would Have Helped?Reasons Given by 500 Dropouts (2006)
Source: Dalton, Ben; Glennie, Elizabeth; and Ingels, Steven J.(2009). Late High-School Dropouts. National Center for Education Statistics.
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Teachers matter.
“Having a top-quartile teacher rather than a bottom-quartile teacher four years in a row would be enough to close the black-white test score gap.”
(Gordon, Kane and Staiger, 2006)
“Having a high-quality teacher throughout elementary school can substantially offset or even eliminate the disadvantage of low socio-economic background.”
(Rivkin, Hanushek and Kain, 2002)
“A very good teacher as opposed to a very bad one can make as much as a full year’s difference in learning growth for students. Indeed, the effect of increases in teacher quality swamps the impact
of any other educational investment, such as reductions in class size.” (Goldhaber, 2009)
"The results of this study well document that the most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher. In addition, the results show wide variation in effectiveness among
teachers. The immediate and clear implication of this finding is that seemingly more can be done to improve education by improving the effectiveness of teachers than by any other single factor.”
(Wright, Horn and Sanders, 1997)
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Research has shown that effective teachers are critically important to student learning.
Dallas students who start 3rd grade at about the same level of math achievement…
57
55
0 20 40 60 80 100
Group 2
Group 1
Average Percentile Rank
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77
0 20 40 60 80 100
Group 2
Group 1
Average Percentile Rank
End of 5th Grade
After 3 EFFECTIVE
Teachers
After 3 INEFFECTIVE
Teachers
…finish 5th grade math at dramatically different levels depending on the quality of their teachers.
Original analysis by the Education Trust.
Source: Heather Jordan, Robert Mendro, and Dash Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on Longitudinal Student Achievement, 1997.
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Teachers improve during their first years on the job, but the return on experience alone decreases rapidly after year one.
Source: Gordon, Robert; Kane, Thomas and Staiger, Douglas (2006). Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job. Brookings Institute. Working Paper 2006-01.
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A teacher’s certification route holds almost no power to predict effectiveness in the classroom.
Source: Gordon, Robert; Kane, Thomas and Staiger, Douglas (2006). Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job. Brookings Institute. Working Paper 2006-01.
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But a teacher’s effectiveness during years one and two tells us a great deal about how that teacher will perform in the future.
Source: Gordon, Robert; Kane, Thomas and Staiger, Douglas (2006). Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job. Brookings Institute. Working Paper 2006-01.
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When searching for effective teachers, qualifications provide some insight – but past performance is by far the best indicator.
Effects of teacher characteristics on student performance
* Not significantSource: Student Achievement Partners, LLC
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Unfortunately, most teacher evaluation systems do a poor job distinguishing effective teachers from ineffective teachers.
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HISD’s teacher appraisal process is no exception.
Source: HISD Human Resources Records.
97%
PDAS/MPDAS Domain Ratings, 2005-06 Through 2008-09
Just 3.4% of teachers rated on PDAS/MPDAS between 2005-06 and 2008-09 had any domain rated “below expectations” or “unsatisfactory.”
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The result: Teachers don’t receive the support they need to do their best work in the classroom…
Source: Survey of HISD teachers.
“Professional development needs to match the needs of teachers. We are expected to provide differentiated instruction…The material is…just not relevant to my needs.” - Elementary Teacher
“…professional development is tailored according to the needs
of my students.”
51% 45%
“…professional development adequately addresses my individual needs as an educator.”
43%
“…the PDAS process helps me improve my
instructional performance.”
HISD Teachers Who “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” That…
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…and ineffective teaching goes unaddressed.
of principals say that a poorly performing probationary teacher at
their school received a term contract in the last five years.
Only 0.6% of all probationary teachers between 2005-06 and 2008-
09 were nonrenewed for performance reasons.
0.6%100%
Source: Survey of HISD principals, HISD Human Resources Data. Termination and nonrenewal data provided by HISD Professional Standards Office.
56%
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Core Initiative Vision: An effective teacher in every classroom, delivering high-quality instruction to all students.
Effective Instruction
Smart recruitment Useful appraisals Individualized support
New career pathways
Improved Student Learning Outcomes
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Key Strategy: Strengthen Recruitment and Staffing Practices
1Strengthen
Recruitment and Staffing
Practices
Vision:
• HISD will attract the best new teachers from across the state and across the country.
• HISD will help principals make smart staffing decisions, ensuring a good match is made between teachers and schools.
• HISD will hire from programs that have a track record of producing consistently effective teachers, especially in high need grades or subjects.
• New teachers will have the best possible chance to be successful from the moment they set foot in the classroom and ensure all of our schools can build strong teaching teams.
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Key Strategy: Teacher Appraisal
2Establish a Rigorous,
Fair Teacher Appraisal System
Vision:
• HISD will help teachers set ambitious professional goals and track their progress towards meeting them.
• A better appraisal system that gives teachers accurate, useful feedback on their performance and allows HISD to retain its best teachers, develop all teachers to their full potential and remove teachers that are persistently ineffective.
• The new appraisal process will also help all of us focus on what matters most: ensuring that every student is learning and growing.
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Key Strategy Vision: Teacher Support and Development
3Provide
Individualized Teacher
Support and Development
Vision:
• HISD will provide all teachers the support they need to do their best work.
• Professional development that revolves around one-size-fits-all workshops will become a thing of the past. Every teacher will have a development plan that’s customized to fit his or her individual needs.
• HISD will connect teachers with more and better resources and evaluate whether each one actually helps teachers improve in the classroom.
• HISD will hold principals accountable for their teachers’ professional growth, because teachers deserve effective instructional leaders.
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Key Strategy Vision: Career Pathways and Compensation
4Offer New
Career Pathways and Compensation
Vision:
• HISD will recognize and retain its best teachers.
• Talented teachers won’t have to leave the classroom entirely to participate in new career pathways.
• HISD’s best teachers will have opportunities to take on leadership roles, like coordinating professional development for their grade or subject.
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Timeline for Implementing the Core Initiative’s Four Key Strategies
09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15
Strengthen Recruitment and Staffing Practices
Refine recruitment and staffing practices
Implement Improved Recruitment and Staffing Practices (recruitment, screening, selection, onboarding)
Establish a Rigorous, Fair
Teacher Appraisal System
Design new appraisal criteria, process, usage guidelines
Implement(wave 1)
Implement(wave 2)
Implement(wave 3)
Implement(wave 4)
Provide Individualized
Teacher Support and Development
Design new support and development processes
Implement New Support and Development Processes for Teachers
Offer New Career Pathways and Compensation
Develop career pathways and compensation
Implement(wave 1)
Implement(wave 4)
Strategy
Implement(wave 2)
Implement(wave 3)
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Early Progress: The Staff Review Initiative
• By assessing their current staff and their performance, principals are identifying hiring needs in order to inform recruitment efforts in the spring
Strengthen Recruitment and Staffing Practices
Establish a Rigorous, Fair
Teacher Appraisal System
Provide Individualized
Teacher Support and Development
Offer New Career Pathways and Compensation
• Principals are differentiating teacher performance and informing their ratings with student learning measures including EVAAS
• With support from Human Resources, principals are identifying strategies to improve or exit consistently ineffective teachers
• During Staff Review meetings with their SIOs, principals are developing and planning strategies on how to retain each school’s most effective teachers and identify teachers for potential leadership development and principal pipeline.
• Through their IPDPs, teachers and principals are identifying targeted and individualized development supports in order to continuously improve all teachers’ instruction
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The first round of the Staff Review process last spring resulted in greater differentiation of teacher performance.
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Early Progress: Designing a Better Teacher Appraisal System
We want an appraisal system that truly meets the needs of our schools, so the design process gives teachers, principals, parents and other school community members a powerful voice in shaping the new system.
• Recommendations from school-based committees are the bedrock of the new system.
• A dedicated website for the Effective Teachers Core Initiative lets anyone review the latest recommendations and submit feedback.
• Biweekly e-mail updates keep teachers, principals, and interested community members informed about the design process and ways they can get involved.
• A public comment period this winter will give stakeholders multiple opportunities to share their ideas on the proposed new system before it’s finalized.
250+school-based Shared
Decision Making Committees have
participated in the design process, representing:
1100+ Teachers
500+ School administrators
500+ Parents
700+ Other community members